Tuesday, May 29, 2012

I enjoy this time of year in the garden. We've got cool misty mornings and warm sunny afternoons. Great for my little plants!

Peas are coming up where I planted 4 o'clocks. Technically I suppose I planted peas, but I did mean to plant 4 o'clocks. It's another experiment - we'll see how they grow in the summer, and we'll see if they like vining down instead of up.

This is what my other hanging planter should look like. Flowers on the way!

The tomatoes are happy in the ground! They aren't as far along as lots of folks, but I think once they get going, we'll have our fill of tomatoes.

And our experimental hydroponic lettuce continues to grow. It's a bit leggy as of yet, but still growing. We'll be keeping an eye on it.

The weather is really starting to turn to summer here. Check back next week to see what happens when we've got consistently warm and sunny weather - in the meantime, check out An Oregon Cottage for her weekly Garden Party.

Friday, May 25, 2012

We've had thunder and lightning (reasonably novel for us So. Cal. residents) and lots of rain.

We've taken Katy to Starbucks for hot chocolate and bought her lots of loud toys.

And we're working on teaching her how to scream louder. I'm sure her Mama is happy about that.

Today we went to the Como Zoo and saw lions...

... waited patiently for lunch...

...saw lots of pretty flowers....

... and took Katy on her first ever carousel ride!

She liked it!

I liked it too!

We rescued a baby chipmunk (cute!), something we never see in San Diego. My sister assures me there are many here. ;-)

And then we went to dinner. We went to Smalley's Caribbean Barbeque and Pirate Bar. For super hot wings. We saw this on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives - and the wings were nearly too hot for him.

Naturally, we had to try them!

Sheepy thought he would like them. After all, he likes hot food.

Before. Unaware.

Mom ate her wing like a champ!

I took a bite of mine.

Concern.

Alarm!

Panic!

Sheepy couldn't take it.

These wings are cooked and then coated in a mixture of pureed habaneros and ghost peppers. With some sugar and vinegar to kick up the flavor.

Wow. The pain. Crying.

Katy did not have any. Which is why she has the smiley face!

If you happen to be in the vicinity of Stillwater, MN, you should definitely try this place.

And order 6 of the Triple 6 wings. Provided you have 6 people. And a Sheepy.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Technically, I suppose, we did not turn up the sun, but we did make it so more of it will shine on our garden. The tree trimmers came and gave haircuts to our eucalyptus trees.

Those these aren't the same trees, they had basically the same growth (just one year's worth of growth too!) - this is before:

... and after!

Unfortunately, the workers weren't terribly careful when doing their work and they trampled some of the garden. I didn't take a picture of some of the newly planted and now fairly flat corn, but here are some of the newly "trimmed" peas. Poor peas!

Also this week we planted 36 tomato plants! We are determined to get tomatoes this year. We had seedlings of all of these varieties: Season's Starter, Bellestar, Bush Goliath, Banana Legs, Fabuloso, Amish Paste, Sausage, Pruden's Paste, Pere d'Abruzzo and Beefmaster. That should give us some idea of what will grow best here. And hopefully plenty of opportunity for canning!

Our (non-flattened) corn is growing pretty well too. We planted a couple dozen more corn plants this weekend too. We are attempting a phased planting so that we get our harvest over a longer period of time. I hope it works!

My poor sad little Anna. She desperately wants to come outside and help with the gardening. We've talked to her about the coyotes and the hawks that will eat her if she hangs out in the garden, but she is adamant that she could be very useful. And she's pretty sure that she could take on a hawk or a coyote. As you can see, while we are certain that she would try, we are pretty sure she would be less that successful, and she therefore gets to pout in the window.

We'll be spending a few days in Minnesota, so your next look at the garden will be our next look! Check back next week to see what happened while we were gone - in the meantime, check out An Oregon Cottage for her weekly Garden Party.